KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/31 March) – The city government here has allocated some P60 million for the purchase of two separate lands spanning at least 14 hectares that would be used for the planned construction this year of the city’s public terminal complex and sanitary landfill.
Mayor Peter Miguel said Thursday the local government intends to acquire a four-hectare prime property worth P40 million for the proposed terminal complex and another 10 hectares of land valued at P20 million located in the outskirts of the city for the sanitary landfill.
“We’re now working on the budget and the required documentation to facilitate the land purchase and eventually the initial ground works for these projects,” he said.
Miguel said the required appropriation was included in the proposed supplemental budget number 01 that he earlier endorsed as an urgent measure to the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
Based on the proposed supplemental budget, he said the funds would be sourced from unutilized appropriation for various projects from 2001 to 2009.
The mayor said the local government is presently evaluating five possible sites for the proposed terminal complex that were earlier endorsed by the city’s appraisal and selection committees.
He said the proposed terminal sites, which were mostly located in Barangay Sto. Niño, were selected by the committees from proposals submitted by local landowners who responded to the city government’s public invitation for land sale.
“We’re really scrutinizing the proposed sites to make sure that they qualify with government requirements and policies, which mainly emphasize accessibility and traffic considerations,” Miguel said.
He said the city government has yet to come up with the terminal’s design and specifications but cited that it would soon launch a comprehensive study to ensure that the project will complement with the city’s development and expansions on a long-term basis.
“We don’t want the proposed terminal complex here to become too congested later on like what happened to the Davao City Overland Terminal,” he said.
For the sanitary landfill, Miguel said the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) is currently considering at least two areas in Barangay Paraiso here as proposed project sites.
He said they are eyeing a land area of not less than 10 hectares for the sanitary landfill to ensure its long-term use.
Augustus Bretana, Koronadal Cenro chief, said experts from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Region 12 are currently evaluating the suitability of the proposed sites to host the sanitary landfill project.
He said the MGB-12’s geology team visited the proposed sites last week and conducted initial scoping studies.
Bretana said the city government earlier adopted the construction of the sanitary landfill as among its priority projects in compliance with the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2001.
RA 9003 provided for the closure of all open dumpsites in favor of sanitary landfills and ordered the segregation of recyclable and non-recyclable wastes. (Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews)
